06142022 COW & heifer feed

The South Carolina Department of Corrections issued a solicitation on June 14, 2022, for a specialized livestock feed procurement targeting the Wateree River Farm in Rembert, South Carolina. The procurement sought three specific custom feed formulations: Custom Dairy Lactation Meal (370 US tons), Custom Close Up Dry Meal (45 US tons), and Custom Heifer Pellets (40 US tons), totaling 455 US tons of feed. The solicitation mandated exact specified feed formulas with no alternate formulations permitted, and established a delivery schedule on a bi-monthly "as required" basis from July 5, 2022, through September 30, 2022, with potential usage fluctuating plus or minus 25 percent. Offers were due on June 17, 2022, at 10:00 a.m., with award notification anticipated on June 20, 2022. The procurement was a will-call contract, meaning contractors could not enforce minimum order amounts during the contract period. Pricing was required to be submitted as fixed unit prices for each feed formulation, calculated by multiplying quantity by unit price, with all feed to be delivered FOB Destination to the farm location.

The solicitation was issued under Procurement Exemption #7 for livestock feed, rendering it non-protestable, and allowed vendors to claim South Carolina or United States end-product preferences and resident vendor preferences if meeting specific eligibility requirements. Vendors were required to be registered as state vendors prior to submission and hold their offers open for a minimum of 30 calendar days after the opening date. The procurement was managed by Buyer Myrtle K. deWerdt under the direction of Ruthie H. Bishop, CPPB, Director of Procurement. Sealed offers could be submitted to the SC Department of Corrections Purchasing Branch at 4420 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC 29210, or emailed to purchasing@doc.sc.gov with a specific subject line. Notably, the solicitation ultimately resulted in a non-award due to the absence of responsive bids received, meaning no qualifying submissions were obtained from potential vendors for the cow-heifer feed requirement.